EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Crafts Stoneware Pottery of Nashua, New Hampshire and Related Cobalt Blue Decoration Seen in Vermont and New York

Thursday, December 18, 2014

The Crafts Stoneware Pottery of Nashua, New Hampshire and Related Cobalt Blue Decoration Seen in Vermont and New York

The potter, Martin Crafts from the Crafts family name fame in the nineteenth-century, operated a stoneware business in Nashua, New Hampshire in the 1840's and the early 1850's. Stoneware from this business is considered rare today by New England stoneware collectors and aficionados. According to an article written by F.H. Norton (The Crafts Pottery in Nashua, New Hampshire), "It is well known that the Crafts Pottery operated a pottery in Whately, Massachusetts. Information concerning another pottery run by the same family in Nashua, New Hampshire is, on the contrary, less easily available...The pottery of Martin Crafts was located on the eastern side of Main Street, north of the Acton Railroad, and Crafts lived in a cottage in that location. Crafts began his work in 1838 and he brought his clay from Boston by boat...We know very little about the technical details of the pottery. There is no reason, however, to believe that the ware was unlike that of other potteries. The clay may have been used raw or washed. Probably only one kiln was needed, and three or four wheels. Apparently all the ware was thrown on the wheel and salt glazed. The type of ware made is known to include various sizes of jugs and jars, of which the former are much the more plentiful. A few have blue decorations, but generally they are plain. Although it is also believed inkwells were made, but no known marked examples are known today."

Martin Crafts Pottery Stoneware Jug with Blue Decoration - Nashua, NH

Ca. 1838-1851 (Likely Made in the 1840's)
Found in a House in Laconia, NH Last Year

Close Up of the Martin Crafts Mark

Martin Crafts Pottery Stoneware Crock with Blue Decoration - Nashua, NH

Ca. 1838-1851 (Likely Made in the 1840's)

This Crock was Recently Discovered by a Person Who Cleans Out Homes in Essex County, Mass.

The Crock is Currently for Sale - Price Tag is Seen on the Crock

There is a Large Crack on the Back and One of the Handles is Missing

If Interested: Inquire at the Shop Cited Below

Photo Courtesy: The White Elephant - Essex, Ma

There are two angles I would like to discuss in this report about this business; the first subject being ovoid stoneware jugs that are sometimes seen in the marketplace marked, T. Crafts & Co. Thomas Crafts was Martin Crafts father - and he was an overly successful potter who worked in Whately, Massachusetts producing stoneware and red earthenware. According to F.H. Norton, "Since there were only a few stoneware potteries operating in New England in the first half of the nineteenth-century, the Whately stoneware was retailed over a wide area - and a regular trade was carried on with Nashua, New Hampshire."

Not only have I been taught by experienced and scholarly stoneware collectors that the jugs mentioned above marked, T. Crafts & Co. are actually products sold out of Nashua - but I have also found out through my own involvement that many of these marked crocks are found in New Hampshire today; although that's my experience at the least. I have seen a small handful of these types of jugs appear at on-site auctions and estate sales throughout the southern and central parts of the state in recent years.

T. Crafts & Co. 1 Gallon Stoneware Ovoid Jug - Likely Nashua, NH

Ca. 1840s

Found a Couple Years Ago in Exeter, NH

T. Crafts & Co. Mark

I assume that many people reading this may recall the idea of a "traveling potter" mentioned in my previous writing - and if not through my writing, you may have heard of the idea elsewhere. It was not uncommon for potters to travel from business-to-business in the nineteenth-century; however, a traveling decorator is something I had never heard of until a friend of mine, who is a retired Portsmouth, New Hampshire firefighter brought the idea to light.

I was handed a handful of information this past summer that pretty-much documented identical hand-drawn cobalt blue decorations applied by hand in Nashua, New Hampshire, Cortland, New York and Burlington, Vermont. I don't believe this is the result of Martin Crafts traveling to these locations - so I am very curious to know if this was the result of a traveling potter or possibly a traveling decorator. Interestingly, the estimated range of production dates for each of these pieces successively transitions accordingly from New Hampshire to New York and then finally in Vermont. A traveling decorator would not be completely unheard of - even though a traveling potter is more common. What do you think? I wonder who is responsible!